Startup crowdfunds competitions for a cause

Competitions have been used to solve major problems
by governments, big companies and, most recently, tech firms and
startups seeking new products.crowdfunding marketing

Now, one company is providing a platform to inspire competitions that
solve critical social, humanitarian and environmental issues. BigLeap, a
San Francisco-based online startup attempting to create "outcome-driven
innovation," claims to be the world’s first crowdfunding prize and
reward network.crowdfunding advertising

“It’s really hard for nonprofits to drive innovation because they
don’t usually have the money to take big risks,” said software veteran Victor Cho, who co-founded the company with serial entrepreneur Charlie Crystle.
“But, there are all these great resources around the world that could
be pulled in to solve a problem and create a big impact.”

Here’s how it works: Instead of asking for straight-up cash, like
many crowdfunding sites for causes, Cho said BigLeap seeks prize money
for funding competitions that will rally people to solve major and minor
problems around social good.indiegogo marketing

Each challenged posted on BigLeap’s site has to go through a number
of stages, including identifying the problem they want to solve and
targeting amount they need to raise. They must then mobilize a team of
problem solvers to compete. Once the problem is solved, the winning
teams are rewarded and the original need, hopefully, is met.kickstarter marketing

If, for whatever reason, the funding target isn’t met or the problem
is not solved, donors get most of their money back — sans credit card
processing fees. Meanwhile, BigLeap takes an 8 percent cut of the funds
received.kickstarter project